ANTILOCAPRA. 81 
The Prong-horn Antelope, while allied to the Bovide, resembles 
the members of the Cervide by possessing horns with branches, and 
which are shed every year. The hair is very peculiar, being coarse 
and brittle, and breaks on the slightest pressure. The Prong-horn is 
an animal of the plains, and depends for its safety upon its keen 
eyesight and exceeding fleetness. Few animals can keep up with 
him as he bounds over the prairies, and his wary nature makes a 
near approach difficult of accomplishment. Yet his one great weak- 
ness, curiosity, often nullifies these advantages, and any strange 
object on his domains proves an irresistible attraction, and his desire 
to investigate it often costs him his life. Once numerous on our 
Western Plains, the Prong-buck has already vanished from many 
localities, and is now met with only in greatly reduced numbers in 
the comparatively few places it still frequents. 
Fam. Ill Antilocapridze. Prong-horn Antelope. 
Horns branched, deciduous; allied to the Bovide. 
30. Antilocapra. 
Pp; M23 ie fF 
Antilocapra Ord, Jour. de Phys., Lxxxvil, 1818, p. 149. Type 
Antilope americana Ord. 
Dicranocerus H. Smith, Griff., Anim. King., 1827, p. 312. 
FiG. XXV. ANTILOCAPRA A. MEXICANA. MEXICAN PRONG-HORN. 
